Otherworldly: How Emerging Talent Yasmin Bawa Creates Extraordinary Sculptures from Hemp

July 14, 2023

Yasmin Bawa experiments with hempcrete sculpture, revealing just how extravagant simplicity can be. We asked the emerging artist six questions about her practice, her inspirations and her distinctive approach to material.

The understated sculptures of Berlin-based designer Yasmin Bawa appear almost otherworldly. After working at fashion label Acne Studios, she established her own practice and developed a highly personal sculptural technique using an unconventional material: hemp.

Its soft texture and malleability allow her to shape each work by hand and retain control over every detail, Bawa explains. More recently, she created a monumental sculptural reception desk for the newly opened Hotel Corazón in Mallorca, drawing inspiration from the island’s rugged mountain ranges.

It therefore feels particularly fitting that she has now left city life behind and is living and working in a small village in the South of France. There, her daily swims in the river offer a constant source of inspiration through its endlessly shifting forms and colours.

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      Yasmin Bawa

      Yasmin Bawa is a British-American sculptor whose practice is rooted in natural materials, traditional hand-building techniques, and an intuitive approach to form. She studied fashion in London and worked in the industry for several years before turning fully to sculpture. After nearly a decade in Berlin developing her practice, she recently relocated to the Ardèche region of southern France, where she now lives and works among mountains and rivers. 

      At the core of her work is hemp lime, a compound of hemp shiv and lime binder used to sculpt the main structure of each piece. This is layered with successive coats of lime plaster and finished by hand using a polishing technique inspired by Moroccan tadelakt. Yasmin’s forms are curved, organic, and quietly present. They sit between sculpture and object, created as much to be lived with as to be observed. Her work explores ideas of roots, identity, and belonging, shaped by a life lived across cultures and landscapes.

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